Could Smart Phone CC Processing Thwart CC Fraud?

incrediBILL

Doing a little research on smart phones and eCommerce and it appears that several manufacturers are rapidly working on credit card readers and apps for these devices.

Some appear to be already available, some appear to be launching at CES.

A few of the plans I've seen for mobile CC processing even include displaying a picture of the credit card holder on the phone itself to help eliminate fraud.

Collecting images of all credit card holders would've been previously a nearly impossible feat but assuming everyone using a smart phone swipe CC's has a built-in camera, the smart phone operator can record the face of the person using the CC at the point of purchase.

This is a bonus on two levels.

1. A database of valid CC holder images could quickly and easily be created to help eliminate fraud from stolen cards with visual confirmation it's the same person

2. Anyone using a stolen card could have their face recorded for the police which would quickly drive credit card thieves to target low-tech CC merchants, which would just as quickly drive low-tech merchants to invest in $299 (or less) smart phones to avoid being victimized.

Either way it's a total win-win and the CC reader technology is much cheaper than currently available dedicated mobile credit card readers available from traditional sources, an additional win!

If bandits in the near future can't use the cards they steal from online vendors, will they finally stop stealing the CCs since it would have no purpose?

Sierra_Dad

6:18 pm on Jan 4, 2010 (gmt 0)

If bandits in the near future can't use the cards they steal from online vendors, will they finally stop stealing the CCs since it would have no purpose?

How soon do you think that all online merchants will reject all orders that do not come from a smartphone and do not have a picture?

I presume you are meaning this as an application for brick and mortar merchants. In that case, I agree this is intriguing and could change some things.

incrediBILL

6:44 pm on Jan 4, 2010 (gmt 0)

I presume you are meaning this as an application for brick and mortar merchants

Yes, it's a B&M application.

I read somewhere Visa may also tinkering with the idea of calling your (cell) phone to confirm an order where you would get some message like "Hello, this is Visa, please confirm charge of $145.00. Press 1 for YES Press 0 for NO."

That would help online merchants for sure and the combination of the two might end the fraud madness.